Chapter Twenty-Two

Mia

Now what amI really supposed to do here?

Jenna is smiling at me with that triumphant bitch I-have-your-man face.

Except Nick’s not mine.

No one truly belongs to anybody. If there’s one thing I know it’s that.

So I deserve to be hit with a shovel for a wakeup call because here I am standing at the door looking at them and the effect of the sight of them together is very clear on my face.

He’s looking at me, but I’m looking at her, and she’s smiling back at me.

They’ve all seen me as the weakling I’ve been over the last few weeks and the problem is they don’t know me.

I’m about to give both of them a taste of who I can be.

The woman I want to find.

“Something funny?” I snap as she continues to smile. She looks thrown at the remark.

“You,” she informs me.

“Oh I see, I’m funny. Well have a fucking good laugh because it’s the only damn time you’ll laugh at me, or smile at me.”

I don’t know how she does it. She’s naked and so comfortable in her skin she has no shame that I’ve caught her like this and has no inkling to grab her clothes. She just sets her hands on her hips and stares me down.

“You think you’re so special, don’t you?” She throws back.

“Yes,” I answer and shock them both. But I’m not special for the reason she’s accusing me of. It’s not for the reason either of them know. Just for one second I remember the girl I was when I got a scholarship to study at Harvard.

It doesn’t matter where I am today. I know where I’m coming from and what I’m going through now is a rough time, the kind of rough time that life throws at you.

It’s shit, and shit happens.

She laughs and Nick tenses.

“Jenna get the hell out of my office. I warned you already,” he intercedes before we can continue this shit pissing fight.

Jenna really looks put out but she doesn’t argue with him, she grabs her clothes from the sofa and storms past me without putting them on.

As she leaves I come down from my glory Harvard days and remember why I had to come back here tonight when I look at Nick.

I need the money and I owe him.

That’s why I’m here, it’s what I remind myself.

I need the money but tonight I came with a special request. He doesn’t want me anymore so I came straight to his office to ask if I can work somewhere else. I didn’t stop by Mimi like I usually do. I came straight up here and walked in on the shit happening between Nick and Jenna.

“Come in and close the door,” he says, eyes trained on me. He’s standing paces away and I’m not exactly sure what he’s thinking.

I’m not stupid, I know he’s had sex with Jenna. Why else was she in here naked?

There were several times I’d ended up naked in here too and it wasn’t to sit down and drink tea with him.

I do as he says and walk in.